Tutor sentenced for student sex propositions

By Michelle Casady :
May 1, 2014
: Updated: May 1, 2014 9:38pm

SAN ANTONIO — A former tutor with City Year, an organization aimed at keeping at-risk students in school, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison after pleading no contest to sending salacious text messages to at least five teen girls.

Richard Giarratanio, 22, agreed to a four-year sentence in April as part of a plea deal. During his hearing Thursday, state District Judge Maria Teresa Herr had the option of having him serve the term on deferred adjudication probation or in prison. Prosecutors opposed probation.

The second-degree felony is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Giarratanio was working at Burbank High School in November 2012 when five girls approached an administrator telling him they had each received text messages from “Mr. G” asking whether they would have sex with him or if they had any friends who would, according to court records.

When the girls declined his advances, he told them he was “sad and needed to have sex,” adding that he would settle for oral sex, court documents state.

Three of the girls were 14, one was 15 and one was 16. Giarratanio was 20 at the time of the texting.

He started by sending messages saying the girls were “sexy” and progressed to sending some of the girls pictures of himself, asking for photos of them in return.

He reached out to some via Facebook and a few of the girls told authorities they weren't even sure how Giarratanio obtained their cellphone numbers, court records state.